Recently, my husband's brother called and seemed to want to talk about retirement, but didn't actually. He is nearing 70 yo. This sudden reconnection with us feels odd. And he talked about how he has kept a "diary" of his many "accomplishments" for posterity. We find this all kind of puzzling. Hubs and I have discussed it and don't know if he is looking for advice on retirement? Feeling "over the hill"? Worried about money? Hubs is very happy in retirement, so maybe some of you have some ideas.

Perhaps he just wants to reconnect. Sometimes, the older we get we realize that family means more than we give them credit for. If he didn't specifically talk about retirement that was probably just an excuse to talk.

Maybe you are right Jackielou. The death of their mother really created a lot of trouble between hubs brother and sister. Whereas hubs just stayed out of it, tried to be supportive and did not take sides. So trying to reconnect with his brother does make sense. Thanks for the advice.

It could be that he wonders if his "accomplishments" are over as he heads to retiremnt as well. Some people are ready to leave it all behind and head to the hills, farm, beach or backyard and some still need to be doing more. Maybe he needs encouragement as to where he can accomplish things in retirement-by volunteering or whatever?

Or maybe he's just looking for validation as to where he is now.....who knows.

I actually keep a small journal and on one side I write the things to do/places to go and on the other side I journal. aT the end of the day I write down what I did today, even if it was only exercise andknit two inches, lol.

You said it beautifully Quilter. Since he had kept this notebook of "accomplishments", I wondered about that. Apparently, he wanted my hubs to do something like that too and even brought it up in an email. But hubs accomplished what he wanted to in his life and did it visabily disabled with childhood polio. Hubs was happy to head for the hills or in his case the lake. Of course, we wonder if hubs brother and wife have put aside enough money for retirement. They have not lived a frugal life and consider themselves better than most. The brother was concerned about how much they spend on "communication" devices in the last phone call. It reminded me of the story, City mouse, country mouse. Thank you for sharing your thoughts on the matter. It is a puzzle.